The dropax is thus described by Le Clerc: “On étendoit une certaine quantité de cette emplâtre sur la toile, ou la peau; on appliquoit cela sur quelque partie du corps, on le levoit, ou on l’arrachoit, et on l’appliquoit derechef, reitérant souvent la même chose, pour faire rougir la partie, dans le dessein d’attirer en dehors les humeurs, ou les sucs qui servent à la nourriture des parties, ou dans la vue d’ouvrir les pores. Pour rendre cette emplâtre plus efficace on y ajoutoit quelquefois des poudres acres, comme du pyréthre, du poivre, du sel, du soufre. On emploit aussi le dropax pour faire tomber, ou pour arracher le poil de quelque partie.” (Hist. de la Méd.) Hesychius appears to have confounded the dropax with the psilothron or depilatory. The former was merely a sort of calefacient plaster, and was applied to parts not covered with hairs. Oribasius says of it that it is prepared like the malagma. When it is desired to make it calefacient, he directs us to add to it pellitory, the seed of rosemary, and bitumen; when desiccative, the sulphur vivum, salts, and the ashes of vegetables; and when it is wished to make it of such a nature as to scarify the parts, he directs us to add to it limnesium (adarce) and spurge. The part to which it is to be applied, he says, if weak, should be shaven, but in the more robust, and when a stronger application is required, it need not be shaven, unless it is to be applied to the head, chin, or pubes. Myrepsus commends the following dropax: “Take of bitumen, oz. ij; of wax, oz. j, sext. j; of dried pitch, dr. j; of pine-rosin, of natron, of each, oz. j; of sulphur vivum, of pellitory, of white hellebore, of adarce, of each, sext. j; of stavesacre, of spurge, of each, dr. ⅛; of oil, q. s.” Certain forms of the dropax seem to have been allied to the blistering plasters of the moderns. On this subject we cannot do better than copy the remarks of Dr. Clinch, in his Preface to Ruffus Ephesius: “Quantum usus cantharidum, ex quibus hodierna vesicantia ubique fere componuntur, veteribus innotuit, vir Doctissimus Johannes Freind luculenter satis explicuit. Nequeo autem hic silentio transire, quam graviter erratum sit a Georgio Baglivi, qui Oribasii meminit, utpote primi ex Arabibus, qui de usu vesicantium scripsit, quum eundem et Græcum fuisse, et Græcorum idiomate scripsisse, nemo non noverit. Is profecto aliquid suggerit de eo vesicantium genere, quæ dropaces et sinapismi dicuntur, qui ex sinapi, pipere, pyrethro et ejusmodi acribus medicamentis conficiebantur, et semel quidem cantharidum mentionem facit, neutiquam vero, quod scio, de his loquitur tanquam de medicina, quâ ad vesicas in cute excitandas utebantur. Ætius quidem dropacis formam exhibuit, quæ tres cantharidum drachmas recipit, unde dropax exulcerans vulgo audit.”
Oribasius gives, from Antyllus, a most interesting and judicious account of the sinapism. He says that it does not suit with acute diseases, or, at least, only when the patient is of an inert constitution, and the sensibility is obtuse. It is applicable, however, he says, in almost all chronic diseases when other remedies have failed, except in the case of an ulcer in the lungs or liver, or when the disease is seated in a cartilaginous part. He recommends it in all cases of diminished sensibility. The only acute diseases in which he represents it as applicable are lethargy, catochus, carus, or fevers attended with loss of heat and diminished sensibility. Like our author, he directs us to prepare the sinapism with dried figs and mustard. Aëtius, upon the authority of Archigenes, details its medicinal properties in nearly the same terms. Both Aëtius and Oribasius represent goat’s dung, pounded with vinegar, as being equally efficacious as the sinapism, and applying particularly to ischiatic diseases. Myrepsus’s account agrees exactly with that of our author. He mentions that some macerate the figs in vinegar instead of water, but says that it renders the preparation weaker. The Arabians prepared the sinapism exactly as the Greeks, and applied it in similar cases. See Mesue (De Unguentis, i.)
SECT. XX.—DIFFERENT PREPARATIONS OF OILS AND OINTMENTS.
Of unguents and ointments, or of oils in the form of ointments, some are simple, having only one article added to the oil, and some are prepared and compounded from more substances. Of the simple some are formed from flowers put into the oil, such as the oil of roses, that of chamomile, and the susinum, or oil of lilies; some are formed from fruits and seeds, and some from certain shoots, as of rue, which are boiled along with the oil, none of the flowers admitting boiling, and therefore they are rather exposed to the sun. But if their fragrance be strong and permanent, if exposed for a number of days to the sun, they become finer and more useful, such as the oils of roses and chamomile. But such flowers as are weaker and more volatile bear less insolation, being easily dissipated, such as the lily and violet. Of those formed from fruits and seeds, some are formed from them added whole to the oil, such as the melinum or oil of apples; and some have them pounded or altered, and the oily part of them removed, either by being squeezed out in a press and thus separated, such as the oils of walnuts, of sesame, of almonds, of lentisk, of bay, of Palma Christi, of radish, and the like. The compound ones are principally composed of aromatic herbs, which are boiled in the oil with wine, must, or water, and filtrated, some juices, and sometimes fats and marrows, being mixed with the oil. Of these, some being of a strictly oily consistence, are called, simply, ointments or unguents, as the gleucinum, nardinum, sicyonium, and cyprinum: but some having the consistence of acopa, and receiving wax, rosin, or the like, into their composition, are called myracopa, such as the decamyron, amaracinum, and those resembling them. And some are boiled only once, namely, such as do not consist of complex materials, as the metopium, mastichinum, and sicyonium; and some at two, three, or four successive additions, the articles which are most difficult to boil being first put in, such as rosewood, spathe, frankincense-tree, and bay; then the aromatics, Indian-leaf, spikenard, amomum, savin; and, last of all, the juices, fats, marrow, and perhaps wax and rosins being added. The juice of balsam, or opobalsam, is not boiled at all, but is added after the boiling is over, and the ointment moderately cooled; and of the ointments some do not admit of boiling at all, but the ingredients are only mixed, as the mendesium; but some, when wishing to prepare the green ointment, after taking it from the fire, an oz. iss of well-triturated verdigris having been put into lb. v of oil, as in the cyprinum and amaracinum, dip the ointment in this mixture. The simple ointments are possessed of the powers of the articles added to them, or which are pounded in them, the oil being but the groundwork (as it were) or vehicle of them. The nature of all the complex ointments inclines to heating; but some are powerfully calefacient and emollient, so as to agree with cases of ancylosis and infarction, as the metopium, mendesium, marciatum. The pentamyron is more moderate, as the decamyron is stronger, so as to abrade the surface; but those which are moderately hot are subtile, paregoric, and digestive, such as the susinum, amaracinum, irinum, crocinum, foliatum. Some, in addition to their heating qualities, are sufficiently desiccative and cutting, such as the cyprinum and sicyonium: some are powerfully heating, and rather tonic, and hence they agree with the stomach and viscera in particular when relaxed, such as the mastichinum, nardinum, gleucinum; but the most tonic are those prepared from wild olives; but some ointments are used only by women for their fragrant smell, as the foliatum, spicatum, commagenum, and those called moschelæa or compositions of musk and oil.
The rosaceum, or oil of roses. Of red roses deprived of their nails (or the white extremities of their flowers), and dried for a night and a day, oz. iij; of the oil of unripe olives, one Italian sextarius. Having bound up the vessel carefully, so that it may not evaporate, expose to the sun in open air for forty days, and then deposit the vessel, not on the pavement, but upon a table: some instead of the insolation put the vessel into a well, in order that its fragrance may be preserved by the cold, but others bury it underground.
The chamæmelinum, or oil of chamomile. Of the flower of chamomile, without the white petals, which has been dried for a night and a day, oz. ij; of oil, one Italian sextarius. Cover over the vessel with a plain piece of cloth, so as to allow it to transpire for forty days, after which it is to be carefully covered over and laid up.
The anethinum, or oil of dill. Of the hair of the green dill, dried, oz. j; of sweet oil, an Italian sextarius: expose to the sun in like manner. The oil of dill may likewise be prepared at once, without exposure to the sun; for the hair of dried dill may be boiled in a double vessel, and used; and the oil of chamomile may be prepared in like manner; but they are weaker than those from green dill, and especially if made by exposure to the sun.
The liliaceum, or oil of lilies, called also susinum, perhaps from having been invented in Susa. Of the petals of white lilies, dried in like manner, oz. ij are to be added to an Italian sextarius of oil, and carefully covered over so as to prevent it from evaporating, and exposed to the sun for three days, after which, the first being filtered and thrown away, other two ounces are to be added for other three days, and thus laid up.
The compound susinum, or oil of lilies. Of oil, sext. iij; of aromatic cane, oz. v; of myrrh, oz. v; of cardamom, oz. iij; of the petals of lily, deprived of their nails and dried, lb. j; of cinnamon, oz. iij; of Cilician saffron, oz. v. The whole process is to be divided into three successive additions. First, we are to macerate the myrrh and the calamus in wine for five days, stirring it three times a day, and then we are to boil it with the oil for a very short time. Secondly, we are to macerate the cardamom in water for three days, stirring it in like manner, and then we are to boil it with the oil for one hour. Having filtrated, we add to the pure oil the third part of the lilies, and after three days, again having filtrated, we put in the other third of the lilies; and again, after three days having filtrated and thrown away the first, we are to add the remainder with triturated saffron. But after other three days, the oil being filtrated, we add to it the cinnamon pounded, or, instead of it, arnabo, or double the quantity of cassia or carpesium, and lay it up.